SwipeSelection App Adds Text Editing Features to the iPad Keyboard

Are you looking for a text editing feature on the iPad that’s a little closer to desktop editing? Text editing on the stock iPad virtual keyboard, just like on the iPhone and iPod Touch, is a little hard and time consuming. You move the cursor by tapping and dragging your finger over the text and if you want a few words selected, you wait for the copy option to pop up.

A new app is offering iPad users features that will make these tasks easier. With the SwipeSelection app, you can get a pretty useful cursor-type text navigation and text selection on your iPad. The app is only available on jailbroken iPads but hopefully, this is offered as a paid app in the future, or better yet implemented by Apple on its official keyboard app.

SwipeSelection from developer Kyle Howells is not a separate keyboard app but simply modifies the keyboard on jailbroke iPads by adding gesture-controlled selection options when typing. How does it work exactly? With SwipeSelection installed, the cursor can be moved around the text by dragging with one or two fingers. Dragging with one finger lets users move the cursor slowly over each words, while dragging with two fingers allows faster dragging of the cursor. Selecting text is also improved with SwipeSelection and this is achieved by holding the Shift key to start the drag.

The good news is, the SwipeSelection app will be free for jailbroken iPad users. Here’s a video that demonstrates the features of the SwipeSelection app for iPad.